Leader's uncle rose to No. 2 in North Korea

ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 13, 2013

Photo: Li Xin, SUB

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FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2012 file photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, Jang Song Thaek, North Korea's vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, attends the third meeting on developing the economic zones in North Korea, in Beijing. North Korean state media say Kim Jong Un's uncle has been executed, calling the leader's former mentor "worse than a dog." The announcement on Thursday evening, Dec. 12, 2013, comes days after Pyongyang announced that Jang Song Thaek had been removed from all his posts because of allegations of corruption, drug use, gambling, womanizing and generally leading a "dissolute and depraved life."(AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Xin, File) NO SALES less

FILE - In this Aug. 14, 2012 file photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, Jang Song Thaek, North Korea's vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, attends the third meeting on developing ... more

Photo: Li Xin, SUB

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, right, is accompanied by his uncle, Jang Song Thaek in April at the People's Theatre in Pyongyang to celebrate the 101st birthday of the late leader Kim Il-Sung. Jang was executed in a recent purge.﻿ less

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, right, is accompanied by his uncle, Jang Song Thaek in April at the People's Theatre in Pyongyang to celebrate the 101st birthday of the late leader Kim Il-Sung. Jang was ... more

Photo: KNS, Handout

Leader's uncle rose to No. 2 in North Korea

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SEOUL, South Korea - Jang Song Thaek rose from a municipal bureaucrat to North Korea's No. 2 official - behind only leader Kim Jong Un.

But his ties were more than political: Jang was Kim's uncle, married to the leader's aunt, Kim Kyong Hui.

In late 2008, Jang was assumed to be serving in a regency role while the young Kim Jong Un was being groomed to succeed his father, Kim Jong Il. Jang often accompanied Kim Jong Un on guidance trips and stood at his elbow at public events.

A well-traveled operator with a network that spread to China, Jang was considered the chief architect of economic policy that focused on partnering North Korea with its neighbor and ally.

Rumors of Jang's dismissal began surfacing in Seoul earlier this month. On Sunday, he was fired from all posts at a special party meeting and dragged away by soldiers. Four days after his dramatic public arrest, Jang was tried for treason by a special military tribunal and executed, state media reported.

The list of crimes against Jang was long, with plotting to overthrow the leadership the most serious.

For the outside world, the Korean Central News Agency's 2,700-word treatise ripping Jang's reputation to shreds provided an intriguing and revealing glimpse into the murky, feudalistic world of politics in the country.

For North Koreans, the shocking public pillorying of a man seen as a father figure to Kim Jong Un was designed to send a clear message about the intolerance of opposition in a totalitarian state that demands absolute loyalty to the leader.

It was a humiliating end to a complicated career.

Jang, a native of the far northeastern border city of Chongjin, had humble roots but was sharp enough to gain entry to prestigious Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. He started as instructor for the Pyongyang City Committee of the Workers' Party, and he rose post by post until reaching the top ranks.

Jang was purged and sent to a labor camp for two years in the mid-2000s, according to Kim Young-soo, a North Korea expert at Sogang University in Seoul. That purge was widely seen as a move to clip his wings.

It was after Kim Jong Il's stroke in 2008, as the regime began preparing Kim Jong Un to succeed him, that Jang began his meteoric rise to the inner circle.

Jang was not a career military man but was made a four-star general. He was appointed director of the Administration Department of the party's Central Committee, a position that gave him power over security agencies as well as the judiciary.

Capitalist, gambler

A shrewd-looking man who wore tinted glasses, Jang had basked in his special status as the second in power.

Jang displayed rare boldness at public events where the rest of the top officials sat at attention, applauding with the kind of ennui only displayed by one other man: Kim Jong Un.

He was described as a libertine and secret capitalist who distributed pornography and blew $6.3 million on gambling, according to state media.

What Jang's execution means for his wife was unclear. Kim Kyong Hui plays a key role in a leadership structure that stakes its claim to legitimacy on blood relations to her father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.

Jang and his wife's only child, a daughter, committed suicide in 2006 at age 29, according to South Korean media.